THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                        REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                                  AND 
                  NATO SECRETARY GENERAL JAVIER SOLANA
                          IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

                            The Oval Office

10:08 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Let me just say that I'm delighted to have Secretary General Solana here. I think he has done a superb job in leading NATO. We are very much looking forward, in just a little over a month, to celebrating the 50th anniversary of NATO by admitting new members. The documents were issued over the weekend. The Secretary of State went to Missouri with the representatives of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and we're very pleased. I'm looking forward to the meeting and looking forward to NATO's missions in the 21st century.

Let me say I'm also very, very pleased by the news we received this morning that the Kosovar Albanians have agreed to sign the peace agreement. And I want to thank Mr. Solana and Secretary Albright, and all the others who have worked on this so hard. And, again, I would encourage Mr. Milosevic to agree to the terms as well, so that we can avoid further conflict and bloodshed.

Q Do you think they will, the Serbs -- will go along with it?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. I hope they will. And I think it is clearly the right thing to do. From his point of view, I think it's the best chance to preserve the integrity of Serbia, and avoid economic and other adversity. So I would hope that he would do that.

Q Mr. President, is it a certainty that NATO will strike if he doesn't sign? Is that for sure?

Q Well, do you have anything to talk him into it?

THE PRESIDENT: One at a time. Wait. Wait.

Q Is it a certainty that NATO will strike the Serbs if Milosevic does not sign?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, all I can tell you is I think we have a clear statement out there about what our policy is. And if he shows intransigence and aggression, I think from our point of view we would have little option. You might want to ask Mr. Solana what he thinks about that.

Q Do you agree with that, Mr. Secretary General?

SECRETARY GENERAL SOLANA: I agree. Yes, yes. As just said, the President -- I do agree, yes.

Q Mr. President, how long are you prepared to let these talks in France go on?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think they ought to be able to talk this through a little bit. I don't know that anyone was absolutely sure the Kosovar Albanians would sign this morning. And peace is better than war. But, obviously, they can't go on indefinitely. We need to give everybody time to assess the current situation and where they're going to go from here.

But, again, I think the most important thing now is that Mr. Milosevic and the Serbs agree to sign. And it's clearly the right thing to do.

Q Mr. President, in the past NATO has only been willing to act in the wake of extreme atrocities. Why is it credible to threaten the use of military force in this situation if that doesn't take place?

THE PRESIDENT: What would your answer be?

SECRETARY GENERAL SOLANA: My answer is that if an agreement is not reached -- if President Milosevic doesn't sign, the risk of a catastrophe will be very likely. And we have to prevent that from happening. And NATO will prevent that from happening.

THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, in sort of support of the other NATO allies as well, the reason we -- you're absolutely right, there's not a lot of precedent for what we're trying to do here. But the reason that we worked so hard -- that Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, the rest of us -- the reason we worked so hard to get NATO to take this position is to avoid the level of atrocity and death that we saw in Bosnia. We didn't want to go down that road again. We wanted to try to dramatically shorten the timetable from aggression and the loss of innocent life and upheaval, to action.

And so far I would say that it seems to have been a successful policy, in the sense that we at least have one side now signing on to this peace agreement. We just have to stay with it. We have to be firm about this.

MR. LOCKHART: Thank you, pool.

Q Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q Going to hold a news conference soon, right?

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. That's what -- I think so. I just miss you so terribly, and not having any questions.

Q I bet. And we've missed you, too.

END 10:13 A.M. EST